Haunted Hotel
by badly-knitted
Summary: Working on a murder case, Dee and Ryo's investigation takes them to a creepy old mansion. Written for fic promptly. Set somewhere in the middle of the manga.


**Title:** Haunted Hotel

 **Author:** badly-knitted

 **Characters:** Dee, Ryo

 **Rating:** PG

 **Setting:** Middle of the manga.

 **Summary:** Working on a murder case, Dee and Ryo's investigation takes them to a creepy old mansion.

 **Word Count:** 1045

 **Written For:** My own prompt 'FAKE, Dee/Ryo, A night trapped in a haunted house,' at fic_promptly.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh

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Tired from searching all three floors of the old mansion, Ryo sank down onto an antique wooden bench seat and put his head in his hands. "I can't believe you let the door close!" he grumbled. "Now we're locked in and we'll have to stay here until morning!"

"It won't come to that, will it?" Dee sounded a bit uncertain. "I mean, when you don't come home, Bikky will call the guys at the precinct, right?"

"He's at a friend's on a sleepover, and besides, we didn't tell anyone we were coming out here, so even if he did know we were missing, no one would have any idea where to look for us." Ryo pulled out his phone, looked at it, and put it away again. "I don't know about you, but I don't have any bars on my phone. We must be outside the range of the nearest tower."

"Same here," Dee replied gloomily after checking his phone. "Look, there has to be another way out, doesn't there? Houses generally have more than one door so just because the front one's locked doesn't mean the back one is."

"I already checked that; it's bricked up."

"Why would someone brick up their back door?"

"I don't know, but it's not just the door. All the downstairs windows are either bricked up or have bars on them."

"So we climb out of an upstairs window and down a drainpipe!" Dee was starting to sound desperate.

"No good, the upstairs windows have got bars on them too. Face it, Dee, we'll just have to make the best of things tonight; the door should automatically unlock at eight in the morning."

"How d'you know that?"

"Says so in the brochure." Ryo waved the leaflet he'd brought with him. "It's on a time lock." He sighed again as his stomach rumbled hungrily. "If I'd known we'd end up trapped here overnight, I'd have come prepared with food and drink; the kitchen cupboards are empty, I guess they must only stock them when there're guests expected. Still, at least the place is furnished, so we can bunk down in a couple of the bedrooms."

"No way! We're stickin' together, there'll be no sleepin' in separate rooms. In fact I don't plan on sleepin' at all!"

Ryo looked up at Dee curiously by the light of the single lamp in the parlour. The overhead lights didn't work; he assumed that was to create 'atmosphere'. Or maybe the bulbs needed to be changed. "Be sensible, there's not much else we can do tonight, and you'll be exhausted tomorrow if you don't get some rest."

"Rest? Here? You're out of your mind if you think I can rest in a place full of ghosts. This is a haunted house, not to mention the last place our vic was seen alive!"

"There's no such thing as ghosts, Dee," Ryo laughed. "It's just an old house that creaks. Come on, I'm going upstairs; might as well get an early night." Ryo headed out of the parlour, turning the lamp out on his way and navigating by the light of his torch. Dee yelped and scuttled over to join him, keeping so close that they kept bumping into each other all the way up the stairs.

The bedrooms were well appointed, although again the only lighting was in the form of table lamps and a few candles, which Dee immediately lit with his ever-present lighter, fire hazard be damned. He wanted as much light as he could get.

The two of them were completely alone in the big old mansion; the few staff who worked there, cleaning and occasionally cooking for visitors, came in at just after eight in the morning and were long gone by the time it got dark, so that guests could enjoy the full experience of a night in a haunted house. Ryo found the whole idea ridiculous, but some people were gullible enough to believe anything. Then again, he and Dee were the only people here so it looked like haunted houses weren't all that popular at present. Business would probably pick up closer to Halloween.

Picking a room with a generously sized double bed almost as big as his own, Ryo pulled off jacket and boots, freshened up in the en suite bathroom, and stretched out on the bed, but when he reached to turn out the lamp, Dee stopped him. "Now what?" Ryo frowned up at his partner who was sitting bolt upright on the bed beside him, eyes a bit wild.

"Just leave the light on, okay? I don't want any ghosts sneakin' up on me in the dark!"

"Dee, I already told you…"

"Yeah, I heard. 'Ghosts aren't real.' You wouldn't be sayin' that if you'd ever seen one."

"Oh, and I suppose you have." Ryo couldn't help his amused chuckle.

"More than once. Don't tell me you've already forgotten that hotel in England! I know you didn't see the ghost, but Bikky and me, we both did, and that's not something I'll forget any time soon. She sank right through the floor at the bottom of the stairs!"

"There was a trapdoor there."

"Which she didn't open. Look, I know you think it was a trick of the light and all that, but I know what I saw, so just humor me, okay?"

"Fine, I'll leave the light on if that's what it takes to shut you up. Now will you please just try to get some sleep?"

"Not gonna happen."

"Suit yourself." Ryo rolled onto his side away from the light and quickly fell asleep, but Dee remained awake, jumping at every sound and every flicker of shadow. It was one of the longest nights of his life, sitting there listening to Ryo's peaceful breathing and trying to watch the whole room at once, but he finally nodded off shortly before the sun came up the next morning.

That was probably a good thing really, since he completely missed seeing the ghost of a woman in black, who walked straight through the wall opposite the bed and out through the closed and locked door as if it wasn't even there.

If Dee had been awake, there was no telling what he might have done!

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The End


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